English is the language of the Internet, Science, Technology and business. Why would you want your children not to be fluent in what is clearly the most important world language? This is what most Qatari parents have said to me!

I love the fact that there are different cultures and different languages (my wife is Russian), but we are talking about your children's futures, surely? Why not make sure that they can read and write fluently in English? Then they can learn Arabic later, as a hobby.